Sunday, January 9, 2011

Rights groups across Europe are contending that fruit, flowers and other goods are being stamped “Made in Israel”, even though they are actually produced by settlements built on occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank or in the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel and Palestinian Authority both benefit from a preferential trade agreement with the European Union, which permits their goods to avoid certain taxes. But because Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal under international law, they can't enjoy such duty exemptions. So falsifying or concealing the origin of settlement products to save money, amounts to fraud against European consumers, exploitation of Palestinian farmers and puts Europe's own farmers at a disadvantage.

Next week a fraud lawsuit will be filed against Agrexco, Israel's largest agricultural exporter, by France's chapter of the pro-Palestinian campaign known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

I spoke with the President of Agrexco's European operations, Oziel Kouri, but he refused to go on camera. He denied any wrongdoing by his company saying that Agrexco is accurately declaring where their products come from.

But the European Union Court of Justice declared in February 2010 that the certificates of origin for Israeli goods were not trustworthy. But Mr. Kouri said Israeli companies could not change the origin of goods destined for the EU for several years as customs officials rigorously check shipments from Israel.

In 1997 Israel was found to be importing Brazilian orange juice, slapping a “Made in Israel” label on the shipments, rerouting them to Europe, and pocketing the saved taxes.

Even if Agrexco loses a court case, it won't make much difference unless the laws against the illegal export of settlement goods are actually enforced.